Rimmington: "Death bowling is my go-to skill"

HAMPSHIRE new boy Nathan Rimmington will make his T20 Blast debut in place of Kyle Abbott tonight.

The 31 year-old seamer has played for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash and has already impressed for Hampshire at the death.

Rimmington, a relatively short, skiddy bowler, took 4-49 from his ten overs as Hampshire beat Surrey by 56 runs in the Second XI Trophy on the Ageas Bowl’s Nursery Ground yesterday.

He is expected to have a similar role to Abbott, who has left to join South Africa’s Test squad in Sri Lanka, during Hampshire’s last three T20 Blast group games.

Rimmington, who has a British passport, already knows the likes of Jimmy Adams, Sean Ervine and Sean Terry from playing in Perth.

And he twice dismissed James Vince while taking 9-115 for Middlesex in a Second Eleven Championship match against Hampshire on the Ageas Bowl's Nursery Ground in 2009.

But his main experience of English conditions has come from playing for Colwyn Bay in the Liverpool League so he is looking forward to playing county cricket for the first time.

“I’ve been lucky enough to get a call-up and am available on a match-to-match basis,” he said. “The T20 Blast is really well promoted back home so this is a competition I’m looking forward to getting a crack at.

“When Hampshire got in touch knowing Kyle was going at some stage I came over to play some twos’ games to push my case.

“There were no guarantees but it was a chance to come over and hopefully have a crack. Death bowling is my go-to skill, being a shorter fast bowler I’m quite skiddy, but I can also bowl up front and swing it around.”

Rimmington has only made 22 first-class appearances, but he has a first-class century to his name and Hampshire have been exploring the possibility of using him in the LV County Championship against Essex at Colchester, from Sunday.